For years, in my writings, including on this blog, and on my radio show (“Facts Matter” on KSCO Santa Cruz, 1080 AM, Sundays 11am to 1 pm) I have been railing about the shortage of unambiguous anti-violent jihadism statements by Muslims. I included in my condemnations my personal Muslim friends and major Islamic institutions.

Below is an opinion published around August 15th by the Canadian newspaper the Canadian Citizen. I reproduce it without any alterations. It answers my questions about Muslim ambiguity. It’s from Canadian citizens rather than from American Muslims but it”s a step in the right direction.

Last week, a journalist who writes for the North Country Times, a small newspaper in Southern California, sent us an e-mail titled “Help.” He couldn’t understand why an Islamic Centre in an area where Adam Gadahn, Osama bin Laden’s American spokesman came from, and that was home to three of the 911 terrorists, was looking to expand.

The man has a very valid point, which leads to the ongoing debate about building a Mosque at Ground Zero in New York. When we try to understand the reasoning behind building a mosque at the epicentre of the worst-ever attack on the U.S., we wonder why its proponents don’t build a monument to those who died in the attack?

New York currently boasts at least 30 mosques so it’s not as if there is pressing need to find space for worshippers. The fact we Muslims know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith and in Islamic parlance, such an act is referred to as “Fitna,” meaning “mischief-making” that is clearly forbidden in the Koran.

The Koran commands Muslims to, “Be considerate when you debate with the People of the Book” — i.e., Jews and Christians. Building an exclusive place of worship for Muslims at the place where Muslims killed thousands of New Yorkers is not being considerate or sensitive, it is undoubtedly an act of “fitna”

So what gives Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the “Cordoba Initiative” and his cohorts the misplaced idea that they will increase tolerance for Muslims by brazenly displaying their own intolerance in this case?

Do they not understand that building a mosque at Ground Zero is equivalent to permitting a Serbian Orthodox church near the killing fields of Srebrenica where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered?

There are many questions that we would like to ask. Questions about where the funding is coming from? If this mosque is being funded by Saudi sources, then it is an even bigger slap in the face of Americans, as nine of the jihadis in the Twin Tower calamity were Saudis.

If Rauf is serious about building bridges, then he could have dedicated space in this so-called community centre to a church and synagogue, but he did not. We passed on this message to him through a mutual Saudi friend, but received no answer. He could have proposed a memorial to the 9/11 dead with a denouncement of the doctrine of armed jihad, but he chose not to.

It’s a repugnant thought that $100 million would be brought into the United States rather than be directed at dying and needy Muslims in Darfur or Pakistan.

Let’s not forget that a mosque is an exclusive place of worship for Muslims and not an inviting community centre. Most Americans are wary of mosques due to the hard core rhetoric that is used in pulpits. And rightly so. As Muslims we are dismayed that our co-religionists have such little consideration for their fellow citizens and wish to rub salt in their wounds and pretend they are applying a balm to sooth the pain.

The Koran implores Muslims to speak the truth, even if it hurts the one who utters the truth. Today we speak the truth, knowing very well Muslims have forgotten this crucial injunction from Allah.

If this mosque does get built, it will forever be a lightning rod for those who have little room for Muslims or Islam in the U.S. We simply cannot understand why on Earth the traditional leadership of America’s Muslims would not realize their folly and back out in an act of goodwill.

As for those teary-eyed, bleeding-heart liberals such as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and much of the media, who are blind to the Islamist agenda in North America, we understand their goodwill.

Unfortunately for us, their stand is based on ignorance and guilt, and they will never in their lives have to face the tyranny of Islamism that targets, kills and maims Muslims worldwide, and is using liberalism itself to destroy liberal secular democratic societies from within.

Raheel Raza is author of Their Jihad … Not my Jihad, and Tarek Fatah is author of The Jew is Not My Enemy (McClelland & Stewart), to be launched in October. Both sit on the board of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

One Response to Declaration on Ground Zero Mosque by Muslim Intellectuals

We have to ask ourselves why????? Why are the liberal politicians in New York so quick to sponser the mosque, and this now includes our muslim President, or have remained silent, such as our Secretary of State, who is not from New York but says she is a New Yorker at heart in order to Carpetbag the state, and yet nothing has been said about the 9 year delay in building a memorial at ground level zero to the 3000 fallen Americans?Maybe the Saudi’s and other muslim entities would like to contribute to that building? And another interesting point I picked up: The buildings that would be torn down to build the mosque are commercial buildings. By building a tax exempt religious center the City would be losing a significant tax contribution to an already devistated economy. By building a memorial, at least you would generate significant revenues for the city through tourist spending. But a mosque vs a commercial building, no comparison. Why hasn’t this point been made by the New Yorker of New Yorkers Charles Schumer. I read the article by the Muslim Canadians. I also know a little history. It is obvious to me that the Canadians are speaking the truth and the others, including the Iman, New York Mayor and our President have a political if not a religious agenda. My projection is that the Mosque will not be built but will consume a enormous amount of goodwill and capital at a time that we should be more concerned with a truly horrific outcome of a nucleurized Iran! As Iran gets closer and closer to becoming nucleur, our muslim friends; seeing that the U.S. is not going to stop Iran, will start weighing the consequences of befriending Iran right in their backyards, making our efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the money spent and lives lost a complete waste. Not to say anything about our loss of world stature. Thank you Mr. President!